Henry vachon



(No Model.)

H. VAGHON.

. SHOE FASTENING. No. 509,707. Patented Nov. 28, 1893.

WITNESSES: $5 INVENTOR V 61. MUM/W 7L6 m A TTOHNE YS.

m2 NAHONAL uTuosRAF-Hme COMPANY wasmucron. a. c,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY VACHON, OF GOLDEN, CANADA.

SHOE-FASTENING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 509,707, dated November 28, 1893.

Application filed May 9, 1893. Serial No. 473,581. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY VACHON, of Golden, in the Province of British Columbia and Dominion of Canada, have invented a new and Improved Shoe-Fastening, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in shoe fastenings and more especially to that class of fastenin gs which are applicable to lace shoes and which are intended to fasten the shoe laces.

The object of my invention is to produce an extremely cheap and simple fastening which may be applied to any lace shoe, which enables the lacing to be easily placed upon the shoe or as easily removed, which may be instantly fastened so as to close the fly of the shoe, and which serves to fasten the shoe securely to the foot and also causes a shoe to fit nicely over the instep.

To these ends my invention consists of cer tain features of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of referenceindicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the shoe provided with my improved fastening. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the shoe fly provided with my fastening devices. Fig. 3 is a broken sectional View showing one side of the fly and tongue. Fig. 4. is a broken detail perspective view of one of the lacing hooks applied to the shoe upper. Fig. 5 is a cross section through the upper and shows the hook in side elevation. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of the lacing eyes which is applied to the tongue and shoe; and Fig. 7 is an edge view of one of the eyes as applied to the tongue.

The shoe 10 is an ordinary lace shoe, which may be of any style whatever, and it has the customary fly 11 and tongue 12, although the latter is placed outside the upper so as to overlap the meeting edges of the fly instead of inside, as is usual. Along the edges of the fly and projecting inward from the edges are hooks 13 formed of wires 14, the members of which lie parallel with each other and are doubled in the center and bent inward to form the engaging portions 15 of the hooks, While the ends of each wire are projected inward through the upper of the shoe, as shown at 16in Figs. 4 and 5, and clinched upon the inner ends of spring tongues 17, these being secured to the opposite side of the upper from the members of the wires 14., and the free end of the tongue presses against the point of the hook, as shown in Fig. 5, thus forming a snatch hook in which the lacing may be readily secured and from which it cannot he accidentally removed.

On the back side of the tongue and at a point midway between the adjacent pairs of books are eyes 18, through which the lacings are passed, each eye comprising two oppositely arranged curved hooks 19, each havlng an opening 20, and the hooks lying side by side, as illustrated best in 7. 'lhehooks are secured to abase plate 21 and an opening 20 is left between the point of each hook and the base plate so that the lacing may be forced beneath the point of one hook, then between the two hooks, and finally beneath the point of the other hook, after which it is straightened out through the eye in the same way that it would be threaded through an ordinary whole eye.

The base plates 21 are firmly secured to the tongue by means of rivets or in any suitable way. The tongue is provided with an eyelet 22 near its upper end and near the middle, and the shoe lacing 23 is threaded through eyelets 24. which are produced op posite one another and at the lower end of the shoe fly, after which the opposite end portions of the lacing are twisted in engagement with the lower hooks 13, then with the lower eye 18, then with the next pair of hooks, and the second eye, so on through the whole series of hooks and eyes, and finally the lacings are threaded through the eyelet 22 and through a hole 25 in the fastening button 26, after which the ends are tied together, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and it is not, furthermore, necessary as a rule to remove the lacing from either thehooks or eyes,but in case it is necessary the lacing may be easily removed and another one provided and applied, as described.

To fasten the shoe to the foot it is only necessary to grasp the upper ends of the lacing and pull firmly upward, thus causing the lacing to slide through the hooks and eyes and pull the meeting edges of the flies together beneath the tongue 12, after which the button 25 is pushed downward so as to lie flat upon the tongue and over the eyelet 22, and the ends of the lacing are forced into the slots 27 in the sides of the button, and as the walls of these slots converge these lacings are wedged firmly in place and do not slip.

I do not limit my invention to the precise construction of the hooks and eyes shown, although these are preferably employed, for it is obvious that the lacing may be arranged, as described, provided with a fastening button and it willoperate in the manner specified, even though the construction of the hooks and eyes he changed. and eyes shown, however, enables the lacing to be very quickly inserted and removed, and for this reason theyare preferably employed.

I have shown my improved lacing as applied to a shoe, but it will be understood that it may be applied to gloves, corsets, and other things which fasten with a lacing, Without changing its principle.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A lace fastening for flies, comprising a series of hooks secured to opposite members of the fly, a tongue arranged to overlap the meeting edges of the fly, a row of eyes secured to the back of the tongue, an eyelet in the upper portion of the tongue, and a lacing extending through the lower portion of the fly The form of hooks.

and through the hooks, eyes and eyelet, substautially as described. v

2. A fastening for lace shoes, comprising a plurality of books arranged on opposite sides of the shoe fly, a tongue to cover the fiy, a row of eyes on the tongue, an eyelet in the upper portion of the tongue, alacing threaded through the lower portions of the flies and extending through the hooks, eyes and eyelets, and a fastening button mounted on the free ends of the lacing and provided with edge slots to engage the strands of the lacing, substantially as described.

3. A lace fastening comprising the hooks along the edges of the fly, a tongue separate at its edges from the edges of the fly and provided on its under side with a central longitudinal series of parallel transverse hooks each hook comprising oppositely facing parallel members and the lacing rove back and forth through the fly and tongue hooks, substantially as set forth.

I. A lace fastening comprising the fly having hooks along the edges'of the fly and each formed of a single piece of wire, a spring tongue for each hook, the bases of the tongues being secured to the fly by the ends of the wires forming the hooks, the tongue having a central longitudinal series of transverse hooks on its under side and the lacing rove back and forth through the fly and tongue hooks, substantially as set forth.

HENRY VAGHON.

Witnesses G. EWELLs, AALEXANDER VAOHON. 

